Aliou Tomota, who now parks his luxury vehicle in front of one of the leading graphic design companies in Mali, began his business career selling livestock on foot. This first business venture took him on long journeys over cross-border roads herding livestock as far as Ghana.
"I was raised in the hard school of life, the African way,” said Tomota. “My success was not handed to me on a silver platter. It is the result of long years of hard work which began when I was a teenager."
The livestock vendor was soon drawn to trade and sold a variety of products. His first investment was in the paper industry, manufacturing stencils and printing. He eventually invested in the more specialized area of computerized office equipment.
Today, the Tomota Group comprises 10 companies with 2,500 employees, and has a turnover of CFAF 45 billion. Eighty percent of the products marketed by the Graphique Industrie Printery and the Librairie Papeterie du Soudan — both belonging to the Group — are manufactured locally using technologies employed in developed countries.
Challenges to Doing Business
According to Tomota, his main constraint in doing business is the competition from products coming in from overseas, from vendors whose taxes are waived by the government. He is also in stiff competition with Chinese firms operating in the printing business.
In addition, Tomota’s oil factory is under pressure from smaller, non-industrial cotton-seed oil producers, who, he says, have a small number of employees and lower overhead charges.
Mali ’s government has to regulate the industry like a referee does players of a game, said Tomota, and be sure that the rules of the game are the same for all players.
The World Bank’s Involvement
Despite these challenges, The Tomota Group continues its expansion. It has established several transport companies to move its products and supplies, as well as companies in real estate, construction and public works.
Under a World Bank supported Cotton Sector reform, which deregulated Mali’s cotton sector, Tomota was able to acquire his cotton seed oil factory in a competitive bid. The factory manufactures not only cottonseed oil, but also animal feed and soap mainly by processing local agricultural raw materials.
"For each new business, we establish a well-structured company with the necessary human resources and the mental input to make it grow," explained Tomota.
The Group is continuing its program through research and development. It announced that its next investment is expected to be in Burkina Faso, which borders Mali and is a member of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), a group comprised of eight states in the sub-region.
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